"You are as likely to be hit by lightening than killed by a mentally ill person", yet we still stigmatise and discriminate why?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8192603.stm

We as a species like an adrenaline rush, after all it's the
motivation for skydiving, mountain climbing, roller coaster, ghost stories and many movies.In short we love a good scare, but is the latter helping to foster untrue and detrimental stereotyping.

We seek entertainment by vilifying those that are different or we don't understand.
Almost every crime show/movie has depicted the mentally ill as either someone to be fearful of or an object of pity. In reality in 98% of the cases the stereotype is not true.

For example schizophrenics, bipolar suffers are more likely to harm themselves than others.
Most murders are committed by ordinary 'sane' people, people like us. Therefore, logically shouldn't we fear normality(?).

Honestly,how many of you really understand what mental illness entails, judging by some of the comment few do.
Test yourselves, how could by polar affected the behaviour of the Englishman executed for drug trafficking by the RPC ?

If you don't know then how solid is your understanding and probably prejudicial attitudes towards the mentally ill?

You have raised some interesting points re people's perceptions of the mentally ill examinator, some of them correct.

Having worked with many mentally ill patients over the years, I would like to say that there are many different mental illness diagnoses.

1 in 3 Australians will suffer from a form of mental illness at some time in their lifetime- usually depressive/anxiety illnesses.

Therefore the assertion that you are as likely to be hit by lightening as harmed by someone with a mental illness is really untrue isn't it?

I would hazard a guess that most murderers, unless they are killing in self-defense, would have to have some form of mental illness to be able to commit such an awful crime in the first place.

One has to have have learnt how to be violent or to have violent thoughts before you would be able to murder- eg, they have grown up in a violent household, with all the resulting mental illnesses this causes.

Martin Bryant, the guy who committed Australia's worst mass murders, was known to have had a pre-existing mental illness.

One doesn't have to have the really serious illnesses of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder to be considered mentally ill.

I believe many alcoholics and drug addicts have a substance abuse problem in order to lessen the symptoms of an underlying mental disorder. It is well known that murders are often committed by people under the influence of these substances.

Thus, Australia needs to provide much more facilities and staff to better manage our mentally disturbed people if we want to try and decrease the violence in our society.

Hmmm .. now please do correct me if I'm mistaken, but isn't Bi-Polar the new term for what used to be called manic depression?

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I think that the question that *ExaminatoR* raises is one of a fact to be determined by record, though I am unaware of an online resource which we could examine to form a substantive view.

Otherwise police records require a retarded, time consuming pieces of paper process in order to access them.

It is in the public domain though that the mentally ill are significantly over represented in the prison system, though without a new definition of what constitutes a mental illness, my view is that *Suze's* assertion that one needs to be mentally ill in order to murder is an incorrect one.

In the case of "Paranoid Schizophrenia" it may be that in reality that as a sub group that they are more likely to kill others due to the prominent state of consciousness which leads to them often interpreting threat where in reality none exists. Still, one published W.A. case comes to mind where both things were true.

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A distressed individual turns up at Alma Street claiming to be persecuted by the Devil. He is turned away by some fool and promptly goes off, kills someone, and then himself.

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A note from my experiences in Indonesia whilst having a looky looky in some of their institutions. Even though they appear as filthy, sh!t holes in a state of derision, they do retain some noble traits, i.m.h.o.

In the above case, the afflicted individual would have come, and a quick point from the door guard would have had him stuffed in a corridor or out back with the chooks, or perhaps hanging half out the window.

These places are invariably overflowing to the gunnels, but they do not turn people away.

They are also full of relatives, and many poppets would come to the afflicted and sit him down, give him some water, put their hands gently upon him, massage and stroke him gently, all the while doing tonals on him:

"Nah! Nah! Nah!"

and lull him into peacefulness ..

Eventually, some one would come running down the hall with a bag of drugs and needles, jab a needle in his bum .. and on it goes.

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Few things disgust me more than political money grubbing doctors who value their over inflated opinion of themselves and their personal pay cheques in practical reality over the health of the afflicted.

From memory, the medicare rate for some specialists is something like $AU200+ per hour. But, pursuant to the self interested $#!$ of the A.ustralian M.oney grubbers A.ssociation, relevant practitioners put their hands out for up front payments of amounts in excess of $AU350, putting them out of reach of most other than someone's rich wife who has developed insecurity over her husband's philandering.

Dreamon doesn't believe most murderers may have a mental illness.
Have you ever worked with mental health clients dreamon? On what basis do you base your assertion?

I have worked in both a women's prison and a mental health unit. Believe me when I tell you that the criminals amongst them were far from 'normal'.

If the normal, sane people (if indeed there are many around!) were known to commit many murders, then I imagine there would be far more murders committed in our society.

At the end of the day, many people in our prison system are never diagnosed with a mental illness because they refuse to cooperate with the mental health professionals and tests offered to them.

That doesn't mean they aren't mentally ill.

Unless faced with an 'us or them' situation, the 'average' person does not commit murder. There is always something in their background to explain their behaviour (but not to excuse it).

*Posted by DreamOn, Sunday, 3 January 2010 3:33:15 PM*

" ... It is in the public domain though that the mentally ill are significantly over represented in the prison system, though without a new definition of what constitutes a mental illness, my view is that *Suze's* assertion that one needs to be mentally ill in order to murder is an incorrect one. ... "

To respond to your incoherent line of reasoning *SuzE* the last mental health patient that I worked with was a patient with ADD who later developed an amphetamine psychosis, likely as a result of shooting up too much "rock" with his Hep positive girlfriend who hung herself over the bedroom door after he dumped her for someone else.

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The fact remains, *ExaminatoR's* question turns on a matter of record, not your narrow opinion.

As stated, I don't know what the numbers in the record show, but also having some qualification at a tertiary level in Legals, I am reasonably certain from studies in Criminology that crime is not predicated on mental illness, including murder.

That is not to say that some people who commit "murder" do not have a mental illness, but you speak in terms of absolutes, which to me attests to your lack of tertiary training, or perhaps that you achieved at a sub optimal rate.

Another basis, I have one friend who is ex-military, who maintains a very hard line against thieves and home invaders, and keeps a variety of weapons for the purposes of "protection." The only good thief in his view, is a dead one. He has no certification for "mental illness."

A recent televised incident in Texas, with two home invaders spotted by a gun slinging neighbour. He phoned 911 to report his intent. BANG! BANG! No criminal charge. No mental illness. 2 dead thieves.

No, your assertion that "sane" people do not commit murder unless in an "us or them" situation is a nonsense. What about the deaths caused during domestic disputes whilst one partner is in a "moment of rage?"